


Examination

by orphan_account



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, One-Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-05
Updated: 2016-01-05
Packaged: 2018-05-11 21:19:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5642338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Short fluffy one-shot to accompany Inopportune Moments (but definitely coherent on its own). Hux's hospitality droid does not understand a few things about human companionship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Examination

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lady_Darkside](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Darkside/gifts).



HD-7 did not mind this General. It did not mind this General at all. This General was a tidy man and quiet, and his requests were simple and infrequent.

 

HD-7's last General had been different – very loud, volatile, prone to kicking HD-7 when she was frustrated. She held many gatherings in the apartment and kept many lovers. The demands on HD-7 were ceaseless, complicated. It had little time to clean the apartment.

 

This General gave HD-7 so little to do that it found itself making work, powering down – or sometimes, observing the pleasant quiet man who took such nice care of all his things. He seldom took a break from his own work; he ate plain, fast meals at his desk while he communicated with the other humans on board the _Finalizer_. He had few guests, and when they came to his apartment they were tidy and quiet and undemanding like he was.

 

Except for the Ren.

 

The Ren wore a mask like The Phasma, but appeared to be male and appeared to be hostile to the General. The two of them argued every time the Ren came to the apartment. Sometimes, they bickered quietly, but their arguments could quickly spiral into shouting matches between the two of them.

 

This did not improve when they began copulating.

 

HD-7 knew it was the way of humans to copulate with each other – a necessary function for their species's survival as well as their own overall comfort. But it couldn't help but be a little disappointed in the General, who up until now had seemed so droid-like in his behavior.

 

It was in the habit of silently cleaning the carpet of the General's bedroom while he slept: he kept an inconsistent sleep schedule, making this the most efficient room to work in overnight. When the Ren came to visit, however, his sleep periods could lengthen to six, seven, even eight hours at a stretch.

 

HD-7 did not understand why humans were so comforted by being restrained by each other, especially in their sleep. The Ren was substantially larger than the General, and HD-7 was concerned that the General would be unable to escape his grasp in event of emergency. Once, HD-7 expressed this concern; the General uttered a seldom-used profanity and strongly directed HD-7 to mind its own business.

 

HD-7 did not express concern about the Ren again.

 

The Ren was unpredictable in his nighttime behavior, even after his copulation with the General became a regular occurrence in the General's quarters. Frequently, he would reapply his garments and his mask and leave the apartment in a state of obvious agitation. Just as frequently, he would remain in the General's quarters and sleep there.

 

On occasion, however, the Ren would exhibit a behavior that did not at all fit with the pattern typically observed by HD-7.

 

He would wake, frequently with a noise indicating alarm (HD-7's last General had explained the concept of a nightmare to it, and HD-7 would not soon forget that particular violent lesson). The Ren would then sit up, attempting to catch his breath while he stared around the room. He appeared to be confused about his surroundings at first, and then relieved when he recognized the General's bedroom.

 

The unusual part of this behavior was what occurred next: The Ren would shift his position so that he was closer to the General, but he would not resume his sleeping position as was typical for humans who slept in pairs. He would simply sit up in bed, the General's head resting against his hips or in his lap, and observe the General as he slept.

 

HD-7 had serious reservations about interacting with the Ren (who had a temper too much like its last General). However, there was something endearingly droidlike about the way in which the Ren observed the General – first, he would make a visual scan, sometimes adjusting the covers if the General appeared to be too cool or too warm.

 

If the General was not awakened by this initial movement, the Ren would then proceed to perform a physical examination of his sleeping companion. The General's hair appeared to be of particular concern to the Ren, who would spend several minutes running his fingers through it. The expression on the Ren's face was read by HD-7's motion sensors as sadness, but HD-7 was never able to detect the stimulus which had caused this unusual emotional response.

 

The General's back also appeared to be of interest to the Ren. HD-7 was unsure of why humans were so fascinated with each others' pigmentation patterns, whether it was its last General's unusually shaped white patches on her brown skin or the myriad ruddy spots on this General's white skin. HD-7 suspected that the Ren was trying to memorize the General's pigmentation for identification purposes. His method of tracing lines between dots was very similar to HD-7's procedure for patrolling an unfamiliar building.

 

When he was finished examining the General, the Ren would typically remove himself from the bed and begin reapplying his garments. He would initiate the same procedure if the General awakened during the examination – or, perhaps the most accurate way to state this would be “if the General appeared to awaken.”

 

On occasion, HD-7 would hear the General's breath rate shift, indicating that he was awake and aware of the Ren performing his nighttime examination. HD-7 would silently prepare itself to assist the General with his morning routine, but the General would not rise or groan or give any of his usual indications that he was awake.

 

This behavior alarmed HD-7 when it first began to occur: There was no logical reason for the two males, so hostile to each other when they were aware of each others' attention, to behave so amicably under cover of darkness. It did not seem beneficial to the General's stress levels. It was not consistent. It cost him valuable time which he was accustomed to spending at his holoface, performing his duties.

 

However, HD-7 had to acknowledge that most of its concern was personal. It was not programmed to make friends, or even to desire companionship from similar droids. However, HD-7 knew that the Ren's presence had changed something about the General. He would, it suspected, never be quite the same, and HD-7 could not avoid concluding that it had lost a sort of kindred being.

 

There was also the Laundry Issue – but that was not something HD-7 wished to address unless absolutely necessary.


End file.
